The SCOOP is coming ladies and gentlemen. I'll basically be in a one tracked mind the first two weeks of April. This series is the best series I've seen an online site put together because it has three different target audiences. Every main event for the SCOOP (on Pokerstars) has low, medium, and high buy in. If the low starts at 10, multiply it by 10 to get the medium event, and multiply that by 10 to get the high event. I plan on playing basically every low and medium event. I'm working on playing step sit n gos at the moment to win my way into the bigger events as I'd love to participate in them. Aside from that, I have some aunts and uncles and cousins coming into town which is always good. It's tough being far away from family a lot of the time.
The past few weeks, I've been playing a very small tournament schedule. I've played most Sundays and Wednesdays and a few days in between, but I want to be totally focused and in gear come time to play the SCOOP. The Bellagio has another series coming up, but I only plan on playing one or two smaller events unless I ship a monster tourney in the SCOOP. I'm feeling pretty good despite no notable results.
One thing I've really wanted to address lately is my emotional control. I've been reading a book called The Joy of Living and also following some of the meditation practices in it. The self-awareness of how my own mind works has been quite enlightening to say the least. I plan on continuing the practices in this book. Everyone knows that I've had an ability to get caught up way too emotionally in the game of poker to the point where it's probably not even good for my health as far as the stress goes. For the last 4 days or so after putting a lot of this into practice, I've understood what my mind does in situations and how it often resorts to negativity which then spirals out of control to the point where it almost always ruins my day. As a tournament player, most days end in disappointment, but they don't have to always affect me. I would recommend this book for basically anyone, but especially poker players.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
I'm Zonked
14 hours later after about 20 tournaments, I bubbled both the Sunday Major HORSE Final Tables with a 10th and 11th. I'm playing that mix of games very well right now. I also ran fairly good in both to get that far, but just ran like absolute garbage near the final table bubble. I cashed in a couple of other tournaments and felt like all day I was just getting coolered hard and losing lots of races. It has been an absolutely long day. I'm a slight loser on the day, but I'm still fighting. It has been a rough few months, but despite all the bad that has come of it, I'm still not in too bad of shape for the year. It's probably likely I go on about a 120k heater in the next two months, so be prepared for good news.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Sit & Go Grind and some Cleveland talk
With the big tournaments not going quite as planned lately, I've sat back and started multi-tabling the 27-38 dollar sit & gos on Pokerstars. I actually got 5th in the high orbit leaderboard for an extra $200. YAY! In all reality though, I just wanted a new challenge and to free my mind from the pressure associated with always needing to win a tournament. So far, I've done fairly well. I almost got my second Full Tilt HORSE title as well last night coming in 3rd. It made me a $1200 winner on Sunday, which I can't complain about at all. My plan for March is to keep the tournament volume relatively low. I played a ton in January and February, and a change of scenery was definitely needed. With the SCOOP coming up on Pokerstars, I want to be ready to go every day for 2 weeks when April starts. Getting a huge cash in the SCOOP makes the WSOP and some of the April WPT events a lot easier to justify playing.
I just wanted to spit out a few sports observations.
Cleveland Cavs
I don't know how this team is going to beat Boston if Boston gets the one seed and we have to play 4 there. If we get the one seed, I still think it will be an epic series. To me, Boston is the best team in the NBA until someone else proves otherwise. We haven't done that yet. Lebron needs to stop Paul Pierce if we are going to win in June. So far, Lebron has failed to show up against Boston on the road. I still like our chances and think that we are one of the best run organizations in professional sports. Our front office actually gets it. No trades to do anything crazy at the deadline. Lebron is happy even though everyone thinks he is leaving. Let's just break the Cleveland curse and win one and he'll never leave.
Cleveland Indians
When does baseball start? It seems like forever since I rooted for a game, but it's a combination of the idiocy of that league that restrains my excitement I once had as a youth. Steroids, A Roids, no salary cap, corruption, and what else is new.... I still think the tribe has a chance every year.
Cleveland Browns
I already love our front office. I don't love the fact that we are basically in rebuild mode. We have only signed players that will give our team more depth in crucial positions. I loved Kellen Winslow as a player, but since he only played about half of the games, getting rid of him was kind of a wash for me. I don't think he really every fit into the system in Cleveland.
As far as Braylon Edwards is concerned, everyone wants to trade him, but I'm not on that bandwagon. He had an off year last year. I'm expecting him to return to his form next year with the discipline of the new staff and a new QB behind center. Trading him in a fire sale isn't going to get us anywhere. We also have some upside in keeping him because if he sucks, we will get picks for him when someone signs him based on how the NFL rules work. I'm not exactly sure of all the details, but I think the best case scenario is 1st and 3rd rounders in 2010. If he's good, our offense will be explosive again just like it was two years ago. He is that good when he plays at his best. I just hope he keeps his mouth shut and does his playing on the field.
I'm looking forward to the draft. We will take the best player available. It appears Aaron Curry will be gone by number 5. If he's gone, I like Orapko or Andre Smith. Either player builds one of the interior lines.
Shaun Rodgers, please just stay and stop complaining. Every fan in this city loves you.
I just wanted to spit out a few sports observations.
Cleveland Cavs
I don't know how this team is going to beat Boston if Boston gets the one seed and we have to play 4 there. If we get the one seed, I still think it will be an epic series. To me, Boston is the best team in the NBA until someone else proves otherwise. We haven't done that yet. Lebron needs to stop Paul Pierce if we are going to win in June. So far, Lebron has failed to show up against Boston on the road. I still like our chances and think that we are one of the best run organizations in professional sports. Our front office actually gets it. No trades to do anything crazy at the deadline. Lebron is happy even though everyone thinks he is leaving. Let's just break the Cleveland curse and win one and he'll never leave.
Cleveland Indians
When does baseball start? It seems like forever since I rooted for a game, but it's a combination of the idiocy of that league that restrains my excitement I once had as a youth. Steroids, A Roids, no salary cap, corruption, and what else is new.... I still think the tribe has a chance every year.
Cleveland Browns
I already love our front office. I don't love the fact that we are basically in rebuild mode. We have only signed players that will give our team more depth in crucial positions. I loved Kellen Winslow as a player, but since he only played about half of the games, getting rid of him was kind of a wash for me. I don't think he really every fit into the system in Cleveland.
As far as Braylon Edwards is concerned, everyone wants to trade him, but I'm not on that bandwagon. He had an off year last year. I'm expecting him to return to his form next year with the discipline of the new staff and a new QB behind center. Trading him in a fire sale isn't going to get us anywhere. We also have some upside in keeping him because if he sucks, we will get picks for him when someone signs him based on how the NFL rules work. I'm not exactly sure of all the details, but I think the best case scenario is 1st and 3rd rounders in 2010. If he's good, our offense will be explosive again just like it was two years ago. He is that good when he plays at his best. I just hope he keeps his mouth shut and does his playing on the field.
I'm looking forward to the draft. We will take the best player available. It appears Aaron Curry will be gone by number 5. If he's gone, I like Orapko or Andre Smith. Either player builds one of the interior lines.
Shaun Rodgers, please just stay and stop complaining. Every fan in this city loves you.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Wynn Poker Classic Event 1
So I played event 1 of the Wynn Poker Classic which was a 545 buy in and attracted 450 players. Overall, I love playing the first event of tournaments because they attract a wide range of skill levels and generally generate the most excitement aside from the main event of any particular series. After a horrendous run in LA, I was confident and ready to go. Day 1 actually was painful. I've never seen more atrocious play in my entire poker playing career barring the first week on Party Poker. I was slightly amazed because although almost every single live tournament is pretty horrendous in play, they are usually never this bad. Actually in LA, I had a couple of decent first few tables from what I could witness. One guy had accumulated about 130k in level 4 from starting stack of 10k. The hands of consequence were extremely rare. I was playing extremely passive the entire day because when I was actually in a hand with someone and would just call with a solid hand, they would proceed to fire every single betting round. There were probably 4 pots where it went bet call, bet call, bet call and I scooped good size pots. They were the type of players that tended to think that as long as no one raised, their hand was good. Anyway, after a painful AK lay down right before the dinner break on Day 1, I battled back and ended the day with around 85k which was good for 20th out of 50. I actually survived an AK vs JT all in right before the bubble. Coming into Day 2, I was thrilled because I knew I had around a 20bb stack with blinds being at 2k/4k and that was plenty of chips against this field.
Day 2 was hell. I got there and notice that they had colored us up to the next level of chips and raised the level. The floor said that we only had a minute left at the lower level and they wanted to save time and color us up the night before. Color up is a term used to describe the removal of certain lower denomination chips as blinds go up. I could have sworn we had 20 minutes left in the level. The kicker was that there were two day ones playing down to 25 each day. The first Day 1 ended on 3k/6k while we ended on 2k/4k. Moral of the story is that they shouldn't have done this in the first place, but they definitely shouldn't have jumped to the higher level of the two. So while I'm expecting to go in with 20bb, I actually have around 14. Anyway, my table wasn't all that tough from the people I recognized from the day before. There was a solid girl about my age that was across the table that was at my table from Day 1, but with both our stack sizes, I knew if we collided, it would likely be in a situation neither of us could avoid. We lost 20 players rather quickly and I was dealt nothing the first level. We move up to 4000/8000 with a 1k ante and I still have around 80k because of a few timely shoves. Then some guy from Paris, who had easily won 20 pots on Day 1 and 2 by sucking out on someone shoves 280k from the cutoff. LOL!!! This guy tended to bet the amount that correlated to the strength of his hand. He was just precious. I look down at black kings and shove my stack in the middle from the small blind. He rolls over black queens and proceeds to beat me with a better flush.
WAIT WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????????????????? That is correct. The board rolls out T 9 8 all spades giving him more outs (jack or queen). The turn is the J of spades and his straight flush knocks me out of the tourney in 29th. It was actually my first big pair of the entire tournament. I did not see JJ-AA until that point. With 65,000 to first and a stack that would have handily put me in contention, I had nothing to feel but the urgent need to dropkick a slot machine. I did my standard quiet, "good game" and walked to the parking lot trying not to swear under my breath as I am trying extremely hard to quit swearing. Anyway, this is the type of thing that makes me never want to play poker, something that is currently my career.
Poker is just super funny. The last time I felt this confident about my abilities in something was when I used to ace finance tests in college. With some inevitable pressure involved (grades), I would sit down with full confidence and just get in the zone. If I made a mistake, it was likely just something that was lazy. Even when the problems weren't completely clear, I could eliminate a few options and proceed as follows. After playing now full time for a little over a year, I feel like poker is extremely similar. The pressure has changed because of the money and competition, but the overall confidence and methodical rationality it takes to succeed is exactly the same. Unfortunately, unlike in college where the Scantron would reward me for the correct answers, the poker deck does not always follow the precision of a multiple choice test. Either way, I'm prepared for downswings, but today was just an ugly, ugly beat.
Day 2 was hell. I got there and notice that they had colored us up to the next level of chips and raised the level. The floor said that we only had a minute left at the lower level and they wanted to save time and color us up the night before. Color up is a term used to describe the removal of certain lower denomination chips as blinds go up. I could have sworn we had 20 minutes left in the level. The kicker was that there were two day ones playing down to 25 each day. The first Day 1 ended on 3k/6k while we ended on 2k/4k. Moral of the story is that they shouldn't have done this in the first place, but they definitely shouldn't have jumped to the higher level of the two. So while I'm expecting to go in with 20bb, I actually have around 14. Anyway, my table wasn't all that tough from the people I recognized from the day before. There was a solid girl about my age that was across the table that was at my table from Day 1, but with both our stack sizes, I knew if we collided, it would likely be in a situation neither of us could avoid. We lost 20 players rather quickly and I was dealt nothing the first level. We move up to 4000/8000 with a 1k ante and I still have around 80k because of a few timely shoves. Then some guy from Paris, who had easily won 20 pots on Day 1 and 2 by sucking out on someone shoves 280k from the cutoff. LOL!!! This guy tended to bet the amount that correlated to the strength of his hand. He was just precious. I look down at black kings and shove my stack in the middle from the small blind. He rolls over black queens and proceeds to beat me with a better flush.
WAIT WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????????????????? That is correct. The board rolls out T 9 8 all spades giving him more outs (jack or queen). The turn is the J of spades and his straight flush knocks me out of the tourney in 29th. It was actually my first big pair of the entire tournament. I did not see JJ-AA until that point. With 65,000 to first and a stack that would have handily put me in contention, I had nothing to feel but the urgent need to dropkick a slot machine. I did my standard quiet, "good game" and walked to the parking lot trying not to swear under my breath as I am trying extremely hard to quit swearing. Anyway, this is the type of thing that makes me never want to play poker, something that is currently my career.
Poker is just super funny. The last time I felt this confident about my abilities in something was when I used to ace finance tests in college. With some inevitable pressure involved (grades), I would sit down with full confidence and just get in the zone. If I made a mistake, it was likely just something that was lazy. Even when the problems weren't completely clear, I could eliminate a few options and proceed as follows. After playing now full time for a little over a year, I feel like poker is extremely similar. The pressure has changed because of the money and competition, but the overall confidence and methodical rationality it takes to succeed is exactly the same. Unfortunately, unlike in college where the Scantron would reward me for the correct answers, the poker deck does not always follow the precision of a multiple choice test. Either way, I'm prepared for downswings, but today was just an ugly, ugly beat.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Back in Vegas
LA was fun, but not profitable. In the end, I cashed in nothing. I played 5 or 6 events and a satellite with nothing to show for it. I got put into a lot of tough spots in the tournaments, but in general, got slowrolled often. The deepest run I made was in Wednesday's 500. I busted around 68 with 54 paying. The bust hand was really quite complex. I raised UTG +1 with black fives to 2200 with 400/800 blinds at an 8 player table. The big blind can best be described as the exact stereotype of a player that plays live tournaments often. He plays fairly loose, so it wasn't a shocker that he decided to call. He has me covered with his stack slightly bigger than my 32,000. Flop comes down 7 6 4 rainbow. He leads out into me 4000 chips. I quickly called the flop bet. The turn was a K of hearts. It put two hearts on the board, but I wasn't worried about a back door flush too much because of his lead out bet. He bet another 6k on the turn. With this bet, I almost raised all in on the turn. This weakish turn bet seems nothing close to the nuts and almost certainly is scared by the K. At this point, I was kind of confused. Let me explain the confusion how I see it. He bet 6k into a pot that is probably 13-14k. The bet size to me could make sense for either the super strong hand or marginal hand here. On one side of the argument, the smaller bet could be a way to get more money in the pot with a set type hand with a K being a decent payoff card. The smaller bet could also be because the K is a scare card in a way. It turns AK into a better hand over 88 or 99 at this point. I really thought through it at this point for about a minute. I counted out my chips and wanted to see what my options were. I decided to call. I was basically drawing with implied odds to get paid off from a set or resigned to just fold and save myself the last 19k. The river comes an 8 of hearts. It is my money card.....oh wait. He fires 8,000. At this point, I have around 11k left. I nearly just called here. What made me change my mind was the fact that I really thought he would instantly call with any of the sets (not likely against an average good online player). I also could put him on absolutely no hand with hearts. I shoved my chips. He waited about a minute to slowroll me with 5 6 of hearts for the flush. His hand makes perfect sense now. It was a critical mistake in a way, but also probably for close to the chip lead.
Monday, February 16, 2009
In the Zone, Pump Up Blog
First off, I'm not going to complain about anything.
I'm only going to get in the zone. This is the Pump Up Blog.
Tomorrow starts my second trip around at the LA Poker Classic. Basically, I drove 280 miles from Las Vegas to LA where I am going to play at the Commerce Casino. I was just looking at the remaining tournaments in the LA Poker Classic I will be playing this week. Tomorrow is a $335 NL Hold em tournament. The chips looks short and the structure looks good. Basically, it's going to strategically mean that you may get involved in several large pots early. I'm planning to just feel out the table pretty quickly. I expect it to be extremely weak tomorrow. It's President's Day and Americans and foreigners alike will spend those paper rectangles with President's pictures on the front them. Some have Franklin. Some have Washington. Some have paper ones printed with a top hat guy with a cane. They will likely be heading to the Commerce to play the great American past time poker. I have confidence tomorrow. I have been making deep runs, but have not been closing. I've been losing key pots deep and sometimes having bad days; however, I'm due. I've worked hard. I've studied the game. I've played thousands of hours over the last year alone. If I'm going to reach my potential in this game, it's going to come soon.
I've had a few live tournament finishes that were noteworthy. The most disappointing of those came in the $500 event at the Borgata. With $80,000 on the line, I played great poker when it counted, but got my money in with AA vs KJ after a JT8 flop for approximately 2nd-3rd place. The turn was a J and I was sent home with not even a five figure cash and lots of disappointment. The next tournament disappointment was the Belligio tournament last April. A 6th place finish in my biggest live final table was largely a lack of me never playing a hand. When I folded AQ off suit on the first hand of the final table, I think it may have been my only chance to alter the tournament. I folded to an early raiser with AQ off from the button. I had 90k chips with 3k/6k blinds at the start. You can read about that here I didn't realize we still had 2 minutes of time left in the 2/4k round. This makes kind of an interesting debate. In knowing that my stack is going to move from a range of over 20 big blinds (bb) to maybe 10bb if I call and lose the hand, do I play tighter or looser here. I say tighter, and I did fold. It was a pretty tough decision for my first hand at a final table with 6 figures to the winner. You can't help but wonder what might have flopped, or what would have happened if I just shoved. I heard he had 88.
The past is the past. I've had several big wins online over the past year, but I want success in live tournaments. I want people to know that I can look them in the eye and still beat them. This is the pump up blog. I'm pumping myself up for tomorrow and the rest of this week. It starts tomorrow.
I'm only going to get in the zone. This is the Pump Up Blog.
Tomorrow starts my second trip around at the LA Poker Classic. Basically, I drove 280 miles from Las Vegas to LA where I am going to play at the Commerce Casino. I was just looking at the remaining tournaments in the LA Poker Classic I will be playing this week. Tomorrow is a $335 NL Hold em tournament. The chips looks short and the structure looks good. Basically, it's going to strategically mean that you may get involved in several large pots early. I'm planning to just feel out the table pretty quickly. I expect it to be extremely weak tomorrow. It's President's Day and Americans and foreigners alike will spend those paper rectangles with President's pictures on the front them. Some have Franklin. Some have Washington. Some have paper ones printed with a top hat guy with a cane. They will likely be heading to the Commerce to play the great American past time poker. I have confidence tomorrow. I have been making deep runs, but have not been closing. I've been losing key pots deep and sometimes having bad days; however, I'm due. I've worked hard. I've studied the game. I've played thousands of hours over the last year alone. If I'm going to reach my potential in this game, it's going to come soon.
I've had a few live tournament finishes that were noteworthy. The most disappointing of those came in the $500 event at the Borgata. With $80,000 on the line, I played great poker when it counted, but got my money in with AA vs KJ after a JT8 flop for approximately 2nd-3rd place. The turn was a J and I was sent home with not even a five figure cash and lots of disappointment. The next tournament disappointment was the Belligio tournament last April. A 6th place finish in my biggest live final table was largely a lack of me never playing a hand. When I folded AQ off suit on the first hand of the final table, I think it may have been my only chance to alter the tournament. I folded to an early raiser with AQ off from the button. I had 90k chips with 3k/6k blinds at the start. You can read about that here I didn't realize we still had 2 minutes of time left in the 2/4k round. This makes kind of an interesting debate. In knowing that my stack is going to move from a range of over 20 big blinds (bb) to maybe 10bb if I call and lose the hand, do I play tighter or looser here. I say tighter, and I did fold. It was a pretty tough decision for my first hand at a final table with 6 figures to the winner. You can't help but wonder what might have flopped, or what would have happened if I just shoved. I heard he had 88.
The past is the past. I've had several big wins online over the past year, but I want success in live tournaments. I want people to know that I can look them in the eye and still beat them. This is the pump up blog. I'm pumping myself up for tomorrow and the rest of this week. It starts tomorrow.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Quick LAPC update
My LA adventures can be summarized with hardly any results.
Tourney 1- $545 Shorthanded No Limit
In summary, I folded a straight flush pre-flop when neither player had any business playing their hands the way they did. I lost AQ vs QQ short stack and 99 vs JJ short stack to basically cripple me out of the tourney.
Tourney 2- $545 Stud Hi/Lo and Omaha Hi/Lo mixed
I continuously missed in Stud Hi/Lo, and they hit. I didn't lose any chips in the Omaha portion but played big pot after big pot in Stud. It was the best structure at a live tournament that I've seen for a mixed game.
Tourney 3--$545 No Limit
I went from 4,000 to 15,000 in the first two hours by winning AA vs KK and set over set 99 vs 77. I proceeded to pick up several pots for the next 2-4 hours. I then when into an Iacofano frenzy and eventually was called by a guy who "just wanted to gamble" with the King Ten. I had 99 and lost the elusive race.
Online
Chewy's dog (my friend who I'm staying with) lived up to his owner's nickname and shredded my power cord. We think his dog's masochism is awkward as the cord was plugged into the wall while being chewed up. This likely means he was continuously receiving a 120? volt charge in the mouth.
When I got my new power cord back, I played a bunch of tournaments yesterday. I had a notable 14th place finish in the Stars nightly when I went into a super aggressive and failed to win lots of races with low pairs. I also took 2nd in the first round of a shootout. This is about the same as a bubble in a tournament because the 1st place person moves on and 2nd place gets nothing.
I'm playing the $1k with a rebuy today at the Commerce. Here's hoping that I have to skip the Sunday online tourneys.
Tourney 1- $545 Shorthanded No Limit
In summary, I folded a straight flush pre-flop when neither player had any business playing their hands the way they did. I lost AQ vs QQ short stack and 99 vs JJ short stack to basically cripple me out of the tourney.
Tourney 2- $545 Stud Hi/Lo and Omaha Hi/Lo mixed
I continuously missed in Stud Hi/Lo, and they hit. I didn't lose any chips in the Omaha portion but played big pot after big pot in Stud. It was the best structure at a live tournament that I've seen for a mixed game.
Tourney 3--$545 No Limit
I went from 4,000 to 15,000 in the first two hours by winning AA vs KK and set over set 99 vs 77. I proceeded to pick up several pots for the next 2-4 hours. I then when into an Iacofano frenzy and eventually was called by a guy who "just wanted to gamble" with the King Ten. I had 99 and lost the elusive race.
Online
Chewy's dog (my friend who I'm staying with) lived up to his owner's nickname and shredded my power cord. We think his dog's masochism is awkward as the cord was plugged into the wall while being chewed up. This likely means he was continuously receiving a 120? volt charge in the mouth.
When I got my new power cord back, I played a bunch of tournaments yesterday. I had a notable 14th place finish in the Stars nightly when I went into a super aggressive and failed to win lots of races with low pairs. I also took 2nd in the first round of a shootout. This is about the same as a bubble in a tournament because the 1st place person moves on and 2nd place gets nothing.
I'm playing the $1k with a rebuy today at the Commerce. Here's hoping that I have to skip the Sunday online tourneys.
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